Shares in kit-maker Alcatel-Lucent fell sharply in early trading this morning after it cut its 2010 operating margin forecast – despite reporting its first ever net quarterly profit. The French/US firm said its adjusted operating margin for this year would be between 1 percent and 5 percent, compared to a previous forecast of 5 percent, saying it expected only “nominal growth” (defined as between 0 percent and 5 percent) in the telecoms equipment and services market in 2010. It forecast that its operating margin would improve to be in the mid to high single-digit (5 percent to 9 percent) range in 2011 depending on market growth. CEO Ben Verwaayen was upbeat on the firm’s prospects moving forward: “A more stable economic environment and the explosive growth of mobile internet will drive market growth in 2010 and beyond. As the trusted partner of our customers in the migration towards IP and LTE, we are well positioned to benefit from this growth and are on the right track to become a normal company by 2011.” Yesterday’s LTE contract win at AT&T was not mentioned.

Alcatel-Lucent’s net profit for the fourth-quarter was EUR46 million, which – according to a Reuters report – was its first profit in the 13 quarters since the company was created via the Alcatel/Lucent merger in late 2006. However, quarterly revenues were down nearly 20 percent from a year earlier to EUR3.967 billion, which was lower than analysts had expected. For the full-year 2009, the company reported a net loss of EUR524 million on revenues of EUR15.157 billion (the latter down 10.8 percent year-over-year). Analysts were expecting 2009 revenues of EUR15.68 billion and a net loss of EUR472 million, according to Thomson Reuters estimates. However, the group showed progress on its ongoing cost cutting initiative, announcing that it had trimmed costs by about EUR950 million at constant currency. This was above its cost-cutting target of EUR750 million announced last year.